Not to be outdone by Amazon's new Cloud Player app and Apple's roll-out of iTunes in the Cloud in a dozen European markets, Spotify, the popular Swedish music streaming startup, has revamped its iPhone and iPad client with a brand new interface and a handful of fixes, most notably squashing the annoying bug (no, not that one) which displayed the wrong track on the Lock screen...
In addition to refreshing its Cloud Player software with a brand new iPad interface and other features, online retailer Amazon last night pushed an update to its Kindle client for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.
Hopefully you haven't had a chance to hit the Update button yet, because Kindle version 3.6.1 for iOS has a nasty bug which will delete your entire book library on your device. Of course, all your purchases are still safely available in the Amazon cloud.
The company has acknowledged as much in the app's release notes on iTunes. "There is a known issue with this update," the note reads. "If you are an existing Kindle for iOS user, we recommend you do not install the update at this time". There, you have been warned. The company issued a statement confirming that it's come up with a fix and a new version is underway.
UPDATE: Kindle version 3.6.2 has just gone live on the App Store, fixing the account deregistering glitch...
After a long time, I recently fell in love with Yahoo's Flickr service, all over again. I mean, not everyone is on Facebook. More importantly, Instagram leaves a lot to be desired in terms of screen resolution so Flickr, which stores original-res photos, is becoming increasingly relevant to my iPhoneography workflow. The freshly updated software now supports @username tagging (with tags linked to users' photo stream) and can notify you via push alerts when someone tags you in their comment.
And if you happen to find the volume shutter feature of the stock iOS Camera app useful, you're going to love this update as it lets you snap a photo using your iPhone's volume up button. The program also includes a few other improvements, mentioned right below...
Netflix has a pretty decent app on the iOS platform that really becomes indispensable if you're among the growing number of people subscribed to its service that streams Hollywood movies and television shows to your home.
Today, the company has issued a new version 3.0 build of the iOS app, tweaking the user interface while adding a few improvements. For starters, the zoom icon is back so you can control your experience when in full screen.
And if you're on an iPad, you can also touch the player UI screen to see the title of the currently watched show...
In the speeded up world I'm increasingly finding myself listening to audiobooks because I just don't have the time for long reads. Besides, reading is rarely a background activity.
That's what I love about spoken word: it saves time. I can enjoy my audiobooks while jogging, cooking, commuting and what not. Heck, I sometimes even listen to audiobooks while I simultaneously blog about technology.
Amazon-owned Audible sells some awesome digital audiobooks, radio and TV programs and today they've finally launched an iPad app. And let me tell you, it's been a worthwhile wait.
Of course, the Newark-based company has had an iPhone app in the App Store since July 2010. That piece of software, too, has received a major refresh today, bringing out a revamped interface, quick sign ups / sign ins and other tidbits...
Dropbox on Monday rolled out a shiny new admin console for enterprise users and last week released a new Sync API to make it much easier for programmers to write software which treats cloud Dropbox files as if they were local.
Today, the hot cloud storage startup gave its iOS client some love by pushing out an update containing three useful enhancements.
First up, the Dropbox app sports an all-new PDF viewer with search and nice thumbnail view. Second, you will now receive a push notification when a folder has been shared with you. And third, Dropbox now lets you sort your files by date modified (finally!). The free update is available now from the App Store...
Amazon's Kindle iOS app has been updated with three useful additions. First up, now you can pick between four color choices to highlight passages of text. Second, Amazon says that the brightness setting will now be saved across device sleeps. And last but not the least, the app now supports something Amazon refers to as Book End Actions, which is basically "sharing the accomplishment with friends on Facebook and Twitter".
Clear, Realmac Software's innovative to-do app, was released a year ago and made a splash with its clean interface and heavy use of multitouch gestures. Today, the software was updated in response to feedback from users who objected to how the Edge Swipe feature was implemented.
Edge Swipes let you quickly switch between your lists by dragging your finger from screen edges. Unfortunately, this can quickly become a pain in the you-know-what.
The thing is, Clear's workflow focuses on ordinary swipes which tended to be interpreted as edge swipes if you made the swipe too close to the edge of the screen. Clear version 1.2.1 makes this problem a thing of the past by making Edge Swipe an optional feature, though you'll have to disable it inside Clear’s Settings...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwziSZJ7gpk
Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year, is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. Ahead of the upcoming festivities which come with a seemingly endless stream of colorful lanterns being released in the sky, Cut the Rope maker Zeptolab and UK publisher Chillingo have issued a content update which brings a brand new Lantern box full of - you guessed right - floating paper lanterns. With the 25 new levels, Cut the Rope now has a total of 350 levels spread across fourteen different boxes. Not bad for a 99-cent game...
Following a Skype for iPad update earlier this week that has enabled automatic dropped call recovery, in-app purchase of Skype credits and a minor UI tweak, the Microsoft-owned VoIP provider has pushed out an update to its iPhone and iPod touch client this morning. Borrowing from the latest iPad build, the iPhone version will now automatically reconnect any dropped call.
More importantly emergency calls now get routed through the native dialer, which is interesting knowing most other VoIP apps don't support this feature. A few more tidbits and the full changelog follow after the jump...
Vine, Twitter's new app for sharing short 6-second clips, has had somewhat of a rocky start. Immediately following its launch two weeks ago, Twitter got inundated with complaints that the Editor’s Pick section was populating users' video feed with adult content. Twitter blamed the problem on "a human error" and promised to fix it in the next update. And just like clockwork, Vine version 1.0.5 landed today on the App Store, bringing with better sharing and the 17+ age rating (was 12+)...
Microsoft-owned Skype has some nice mobile clients on the iPhone and iPad (unlike its fugly Mac app). Though it's a tad heavy on CPU and battery, Skype on iOS offers excellent voice quality and image clarity in video chats. At least that's what my experience's been, your mileage may vary. Today, a new iPad build has surfaced on the App Store with some new nice capabilities worth a mention.
If you use Skype credits to text people and make inexpensive calls, no longer do you need to buy these on the Skype web site as the iPad build now supports adding money in-app, but only if you live in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Sweden or Estonia (more countries to follow soon).
Experiencing poor reception (it's Skype's way of letting us know we should buy some credits)? No problem, the new version now automatically reconnects a dropped call. More tidbits right after the break...